Serving Like A Mother

All right, let's pray real quick. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for this beautiful day. Thank you for all the mothers that are out there, Lord. Thank you for um just this this uh life that you've given us, Lord.

I just thank you for time to celebrate in the house of the Lord and just lift you up and it's uh what a blessing it is, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen. So, happy Mother's Day.

All right, so I've got something here for the um the mother who is the most seasoned uh mother, okay? I was I was I was coached by Glenn not to say certain things so um this is for you, Miss Donna. Okay? Um want to bring it to her?

Happy Mother's Day. Miss Donna is like a precious a precious part of our church. She um she came uh off of seeing an interview that I had on TV and um and uh now she's she helps run our uh our worship our outreach um fellowship lunch that we do every time. Um so, I'm excited to excited to be here on Mother's Day.

You know, mothers have a special kind of uh love, you know? Um they'll sacrifice. They'll do anything for their kids. Um they'll always go above and beyond.

When you're sick, you know, what do you want? You want your mom, right? You don't want your dad. Um uh I've been told that even adult men, when they're sick, are like babies.

Like not me, of course. Not me, you know, other men uh but not me. But um that that you just want that warm, you know, love that only a mother kind of give and and um generally they think you are way better than you are, okay? They see the the best in you.

Um they can be your biggest fans and we all need cheerleaders, you know? My mom, hey Mom, happy Mother's Day. She watches online every day every week from uh from Florida. Now, she would she does get on me sometimes about stuff, you know.

She says I drink too much water. Um one time she called and yes, I'm teasing you. One time she called and she's like, "Well, the cross to the right of you, it's crooked. It's not You know, you you know, you got to fix that."

Woo. Now, I love you though. I love you. Thank you for watching me every Sunday.

Um but anyway, uh mothers serve because they love you. Okay? At the end of the day, they love you. And um the question I have today is to pose today for all of us is, do we love Jesus enough to serve his children in the same way?

Okay? That's the question we're going to explore. Um today's lesson I'm calling it serving like a mother, okay? So, and I'm going to start where I always start, which which is with Jesus.

Um so, we're going to go to John 13, verse 3 through 17. And Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand and that he had come from God and was going to God, um and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded himself. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with a towel that with which he was girded. Then, he came to Simon Peter and Peter said to him, "Lord, are you washing my feet?"

Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this." Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." And Jesus answered, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head."

Peter was always like going all out, right? He's great. He Jesus said to him, "He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean, and you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew who would betray him.

Therefore, he said, 'You are not all clean.'" So, when he had washed their feet, taken his garments, and sat down again, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also have to wash another one another's feet.

For I've given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who is sent to him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." So, in a world that glorifies number one, hero worship, you know, uh uh uh we put athletes, uh everybody on on pedestals okay?

Um Jesus kind of had a world turned upside down. He said the greatest among you must serve. We're supposed to put others above us, okay? And I think the key to happiness, really, is serving, okay?

Depression is often an obsession with self. We get into a mode where only thinking about how everything affects us, and we get and we start going down a rabbit hole, and those thoughts will build on themselves, all right? That's all the devil. All right?

But but as soon as you take those thoughts off of you and you start serving someone else, they're gone. You can't be depressed serving in a soup kitchen, is what I say. And and it lifts that. The happiest people are the ones who serve in their strengths, okay?

And it's all about the heart. Self-righteous service is not from the heart. It's not glorifying to God. So, if you're doing something, be you're you're volunteering or you're serving somewhere to be seen, so that people might think you're a good person, or whatever the case may be, that's not really the heart of God towards service, okay?

It's better doing that than maybe doing something else, but it's not that thing that that we're called to do. Service should come from an overflow of love. If you're serving someone because of something you can get from them, okay? You're not really serving.

If you're you're going out out above and beyond for your boss hoping you'll get a raise, you're really not serving in the heart that Jesus talked about. Remember, Jesus here was the master. There was nothing these guys could do okay, to to to benefit him. All right?

He was the master and yet he still went down. Peter's reaction in verse 8 where he says, "You shall never wash my feet." Sounds humble. Like he's being humble.

Like God's too good to wash but really it's a self-righteousness. Okay? If the tables were turned, Peter would never condescend to washing his disciples' feet at that point. That's what you glean from that.

However, 20 years later after after 20 years of serving the Lord and serving his church, you read first and second Peter and you see none of that. You see humble. You see love. You see um amazing lessons for us.

You see a mature Christian who spent his life serving the Lord and and the change in his heart is radical. Okay? From the bold, brash, jump in when he's not supposed to jump in guy that he was back when Jesus called him. And praise the Lord that he calls us when we're not perfect, right?

And that's a beautiful thing. Serving others should come from the overflow of God's love in our heart. Not to be seen, not to win prizes. Though we do get rewards which seems like above and beyond.

Like we're serving and we're blessed when we serve but then there's rewards at the Bema Seat too. That seems like it's just too much. Like God's just too good, you know? But that's how it is.

Um it should flow from the love and grace and mercy that Jesus has shown us. We return that by loving others with the same grace. You know, the early Acts church, it was the disciples who were serving all the people. Like they were the ones serving dinner and stuff until it grew too big and they had to bring in other people and then they prayed about what they should do and And ultimately settled on the disciples, the ones that had been with Jesus, were going to pray and teach.

And then that opened the door for others to serve. Stephen, the first martyr, was actually one of those original servers, okay? So So that opened the door. What when when we get to serve we we grow in ways we can't even see.

Matthew 20 verses 25 through 28. The backdrop here the wife, I mean, the mother of two of the disciples asked Jesus if her two sons can sit on his right and left hand when he comes into his glory. And the other the other 10 were were mad about that, and then Jesus sat them down. He said this.

Uh this Matthew 20:25. But Jesus called them to himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave.

Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." That word slave has a bad connotation, you know, in our in our culture and probably most cultures, but Paul James Timothy all considered themselves bond slaves of Jesus Christ, okay? Now that comes from Exodus 21. The rules that God laid down regarding slaves, if you were to purchase someone and have them in your slave, was for 6 years, and then on the seventh year you gave them their freedom, okay?

If they chose in that freedom to then stay a slave to you they put a uh awl through the ear, and you became a bond slave of that person, okay? And and you were to serve them for the rest of your life. A bond slave of Christ same thing, chooses to live for the master and not for their own needs, okay? Why would a slave choose slavery over freedom, okay?

Well, one, if you serve a good master, he's going to take care of your food, your family, your needs, all your needs. All you got to do is do whatever he tells you to do, and he's going to take care of everything else. And he's going to love you the right way. That's an easier game actually than going out and trying to find a job, figure it out, and pay your own bills, and try to get it all figured out in some ways.

And so, some slaves looked at it and said, "It's better for me to serve this guy because he's a good and loving master, okay?" Now, unfortunately, not all masters were good but we serve a great master, and the bond slave of Christ chooses to lay down his life and just do what the Father says and trust that God's going to take care of the rest, okay? How counter is that to today's culture, okay?

Where we're taught in the church that Jesus is going to help us in our marriage, help us in this, help us in that, but the focus is how we get a better marriage, we get a better life, we get more money, we get more income. That's not the focus of the bond slave. Bond slave doesn't care if he makes money, doesn't care if he does whatever. Whatever you tell me to do today, Lord.

Knowing that the good Father is going to take care of all your needs. That's actually the way we're supposed to be. I want to be a bond slave to Jesus Christ, to give up all my rights, okay? And allow him, simply serve the master, and allow him to determine everything else, okay?

And he will. He'll always take care of our needs. I've never seen anyone who's a Christian die of starvation. I've never seen it, okay, in my own experience, all right?

I had a business that went into the toilet bowl, but somehow enough money came in to always just make ends meet. My kids don't even know that time. They don't even remember that time okay? To God's desires over our own.

Um you know, to Peter the towel was detestable that he was taking that towel and cleaning them, but actually it's rare today to see someone who will just absolutely give up their own rights to do whatever God wants them to do. But it's it's what we're called to ultimately do. Um it embodies what we've been learning the last few weeks. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be done to you, right?

Seek first the kingdom of God. Just do what God wants you to do and trust that he's going to take care of it. Man, that's there's no worry. I don't worry about money.

God's got me, okay? Um and that's not because of the money I make. I just have learned that I don't have to worry about it. He's got it.

Um so you wake up and you say, "Lord, how can I serve you this day?" According to Jesus in Matthew 23:11, he says, "He who's greatest among you shall be the servant of all." So, you know, you you wake up, you want to have a great life, a life that matters, a life that that's transcendent whatever. Get serving.

Get serving. That's the key to greatness. Not being Michael Jordan. You can't be Michael Jordan.

There's only one of those. But you can be the greatest, greater than a Jordan by how you serve, okay? Um Matthew 20:28, we just read it, but but you know, um I'll read it again. Uh the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

There's only one person who was called to die for all the sins of the world. Thankfully, that's not us, okay? But we are called to lay down our desires and our wants and pick up a cross and do what Jesus wants us to do. Okay, we are called to do that.

1 John 2:16 says, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, it's not of the Father, it's of the world." Okay? Now, we we relegate that to just thinking about sexual lust, okay? But, actually okay, the lust of the flesh can be pride arrogance okay?

Anything where you desire things for yourself rather than for what's the good of others, okay? Is the lust of the flesh. We want the nicest cars, the nicest whatever, that's the lust of the flesh. It doesn't have to just be um sexual, all right?

And the way to counter pride and ego is humility. Humility counters pride and ego, okay? And serving brings about humility. Cuz you're serving, you're making someone else better than you in that moment, okay?

Pride is one of the key things that trips us up. As a pastor, you got to really be careful about pride, okay? Something I have to pray about and be constant about. Serving counteracts that, okay?

If I'm serving people in love, it counteracts that. You see a difference in our culture between our culture and this bond slave idea, okay? Our culture is designed for us to get what we want. And it's even in American zeal, you know, you start from nothing and you come up and you become, you know, successful and you're it's an American zeal.

Okay? But, the truth of the matter it's all about us, okay? Even the best-selling Christian books, and I've read a lot of them and I liked them. Like, when Purpose Driven Life came out, I was like, "Yes, such a great book, you know?"

And it and but but other than the first sentence that says, "It's not about you, it's about God." The rest of it is how you can utilize the scriptures to get what you want. It's still about your life. The um Prayer of Jabez, "Enlarge my territory."

It's not about God's kingdom, it's about ours. Now, you can spin it that you're increasing your territory will grow God's territory cuz you're God's person. But you're spinning it out of emotion. God may not want you to pastor a mega church.

He may want you to pastor church of 20 people. Okay? He may want you to just serve your wife in love. Okay?

There's nothing greater than a than a godly woman serving her husband or vice versa. Okay? Um that's that's more powerful than you know, whatever the richest job that might be out there. Serving brings about humility.

A bond slave doesn't care about himself. He just wants what the master wants. I joke about it all the time. Forrest Gump, you know, whatever you tell me to do drill sergeant, you know, it's exactly what we're supposed to do.

Jesus promises that if you live for him, you will be fulfilled. He promises this in scripture that your needs will be met. Your joy will be complete. Voluntary servant hood is pure joy.

Okay? It flows from a heart of love. All right? And there's many ways to serve others, but we should always serve them with the right heart.

Colossians 3:23 and 24 says this. Whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, not to man, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord's the Lord Christ. Okay? It's like a you should serve and when you serve you serve with the right heart.

You ever ask anyone to help you move? That's that's when you know your friends, right? When when you when you help them and and they don't show up. But what about the friend who comes but he lets you know he's not happy that he's there and he's grumpy and he's growling and he's whatever.

You'd almost rather not have him there, right? But but man, the moving is way worse on the person who's moving than it is on the people who came to help for a few hours, okay? What if you went and served on them, but then were cheery, brought beers for the or whatever, you know, you're drinking for the for the people and and enjoyed the time and and affirmed them and loved them. Hey, it's not going to be bad.

Let's knock this out and had a great attitude. That would change everything for that moving day experience. That's serving in with the right heart, the right attitude. Don't say you're going to do something then gripe the whole time you're doing it.

Better just say I can't do it, you know, than to to do it. But even better, say you'll do it and then do it with love. Romans 12 9 Yes. 12 9 through 13 really gives us some neat insight into serving with love, okay?

Let love be without hypocrisy, meaning you serve people whether you get something from it or not, okay? You don't only serve people that can benefit you in some way. You serve just because God tells you to serve. Abhor, which is hate, what is evil.

Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. We were talking earlier. Donna came out and she told me, you know, Juan, you're the most handsome man or something like that.

And I was standing right there, you know? So I'm like, what do you what do you what do you mean, you know? What about me, you know? Um and I was joking with her and she she's all distraught over it.

I was joking with her there, okay? But she was complimenting Juan, okay? She was giving him a compliment, which is good. We it's good to give compliments to people, okay?

It's good to encourage people. That's being kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. In honor, giving preference to one another, doing for others, not yourself, not lagging in diligence, meaning not doing it grudgingly, not doing it later, you know, when I Every mother knows this. When the kid says when you ask him to do something and they don't get up and do it, they they're going to get to it, you know?

But it's going to be on their timetable. Yeah, no. Right? And uh that happens a lot.

That's lacking in diligence. I tell my kids delayed obedience is still disobedience. I've been telling them that for years. You know, and and it is.

According look, it's right here in scripture. All right, like I got backing. Um be not lagging in diligence. Fervent in spirit, doing it with a good heart, serving the Lord, not man.

Rejoicing in hope. Patient in tribulation. Some friends they just they might be going through a tough time. They just need you to sit with them.

You don't have to fix their problem necessarily. This is hard for guys to do, you know, cuz we we immediately want to fix. But sometimes you just have to sit with them, you know? And and and love on them.

Okay? Um rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. Continuing steadfast in prayer. One of the best things we can do is pray for people.

When people fill out a prayer request here, Lord gets it, I get it, and we're praying every day for those prayers until they're answered. So many of them get answered. We were praying this week for you and all those tests came out good, right? I think.

Yeah. Yeah, pretty good. There you go. Victory.

Across that off the list. Um you know, and still going on, but hey. Well, then I'll keep it on the list. Sorry.

Um don't want to scratch it too early. So when you serve, good things happen. Juan has been You saw Juan. Let's give Juan a little hand, right?

First That's his first time leading music um in a church. So um he's been up here though for a couple months, not being paid, just coming up here because he wants to serve and love where Abraham and everyone else was getting paid, but he wasn't getting paid okay? Um, he was just up here for because he loves to sing and act and he's serving, all right? But, look at how God's opening doors and and things.

That's how it happens when you serve. When when I was an an early Christian in the Baptist church I was going to, they they needed someone to lead the men's ministry there and and I stepped out in faith and did it, okay? I was a leader of the men's ministry there and now I'm a leader of a church. It that that that's the early starting point for where this stuff happens 20 years later, okay?

So, you don't know when you serve how God's going to use you. And serving God, you serve God when you serve the church body, okay? In this church, um, we need servant. We need servers, okay?

Um, set up crew, I'm the one who does all the set up, okay? Every every Sunday and I love it. It's it's it's a it's I set up the stuff up here. I don't mess with this, okay?

That's the music guys. But, I love it. Um, child care workers, man, so many people have come through the doors and when I followed up with them later they're like they're like, "We love your church. There's love here.

There's you're hugged on, you're loved, but there's no child care. We can't leave our They've had that kid 7 days, 324 you know, 1 hour just as a break to just fill up their cup, you know, in a service. That's big for them. I understand why even if you love our church, you don't come if there's no child care.

My daughter wants to do child care, but she's she she uh she works a lot on Sundays because of her job, so she can't. So, she can't be in a leadership role. She can support when there if you had someone, but that's a that's an area that you can serve. Outreach, um, for a while Kelsey was doing outreach and it really went well.

Um, we did an outreach at a a dry cleaner, a couple things. But we haven't had someone leading that. There's There's So, there's opportunities to serve if you feel led. At the end of each aisle are these decision cards, right?

And um, even if if you've never filled one out, I'd like you to fill one out cuz it's got your name, address, phone, email, and I can add you to the rolls of the church, but salvation decision, join and serve, if you've got something you feel led that God might be telling you, even if it's not one of the things I mentioned, you know, uh some churches some guys feel really good about cutting down things off of trees and stuff like that. They can lead a a a emergency response team. There's churches that have emergency response teams.

When some tornado comes through or something, they galvanize people and go there, you know? Um, there's all sorts You don't know. I don't know what we need until we come to it. So, just if there's something that you're passionate about, write it down.

Maybe there's a way that we can fill a need in the church with that passion, you know? And then prayer requests are all on there. You just write them in. There's a spot where you can go to the giving thing and it's uh I really encourage you to fill that in, all of you, um, as we go, but it's just about serving, man.

It's just about giving back and going. Um, I want us to be a church that's serving the local community, all right? I bring I pay the bills so that our tithes can go into the local community. I want us also serving, though, with our hands and feet, okay?

Loving. There's a lot of great ministries around here. We can join those ministries. We can We can you know, do our own outreach.

We thought of the pool is going to be opening up at the place I have. I thought of a pool outreach, you know? Go there. I'll grill up burgers and dogs for everyone.

We just talk about Jesus. That's That's Brian Peachey style uh uh um outreach ministry, right? Poolside in the sun. Um Matthew 25:31-41.

It wouldn't be a Brian Piercy sermon if I didn't mention something from the end times discourse by Jesus. I'm joking, but in Matthew 25:31-41, Jesus says this, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory." This is the great white throne judgment. "All the nations will be gathered before him.

He will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. He will set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right hand, 'Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me.

I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger or take you in or naked and clothe you?' "Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?"

And the king will answer and say to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, in as much as you did it for the least of one of these, my brethren, you did it for me." In that day, I want to be a sheep, not a goat, okay? I want to be a guy that lived my life um and poured it out for others just like Jesus poured it out for me, okay?

That's what I'd like to I'd like I'd like that to be said if my kids are in it's in my deathbed and the kids are there, I I'd like that to be what's said about me, okay? That would be cool. Um And you can start right where you are. Start small, you know?

Pray and ask God to show you who to serve or where to serve, you know? Start serving somewhere. Jump in. And not just in the church.

There are opportunities to serve all the time, okay? Um I was I was uh struggling a couple weeks ago and I called a friend of mine and and um you know, when he was going through divorce I was always there and and we've been friends forever and and uh he was just too busy to talk to me, you know, he literally texted back, man, I'm just too slammed, you know. He missed an opportunity, okay, to serve his brother in love, okay?

Still love him, still still my bud, um you know, he's he's wrapped up in his own world right now and that's fine. Um but he missed an opportunity, okay? Be on the lookout for where God's working right around you, okay? In your household, you you see something, your wife's struggling with something or your husband, you know, you can come in and and serve.

You you sense that they need something, you know? Dive in, okay? Seek seek where God is working around you and join him. Whether it's with a co-worker, whether it's wherever, um Melissa and and they're not here, Melissa and um Josh, but apparently Melissa had a house broken into or something a couple hours away from here and and Jimmy took off work and ran down there to help them out, you know what I mean?

That's that's serving in love, you know, he didn't have to do that, it wasn't his house. Um so it's a beautiful thing. I want us to be a church of people that's known for our service and our love. Isn't that that an old song, they will know we are Christians by our love or something like that?

Isn't that how it goes? Something like that. Um love God, love others and in serving it helps us stay humble and we model Jesus, okay? Um who humbled themself to death, even death on a cross, amen?

So, let's love like Jesus and serve like a mother. Amen.